Rachel Alexandra Up to Six Furlongs in Wednesday Breeze

Submitted by jimm on February 24, 2010 - 8:25am

Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra had her farthest workout yet Wednesday in advance of the March 13 New Orleans Ladies, breezing a businesslike six furlongs in 1:14 over a fast main track at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots with regular exercise rider Dominic Terry aboard. The 4-year-old Medaglia d’Oro filly accomplished the time through fractions of :13, :25 1/5, :37 3/5, :49 4/5 and 1:02. A stout gallop-out around the Clubhouse turn was caught by Fair Grounds clockers in :13 for a seven-furlong gallop-out time of 1:27.

Rachel Alexandra’s two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Steve Asmussen, who observed from horseback, called the work “ideal” and “way easier” than her last move on Feb. 18, when she went five furlongs, breezing, in 1:01 1/5 but was noticeably keen early on.

Asmussen said today’s work was just what they were looking for as Rachel Alexandra prepares not only for the New Orleans Ladies, but also the Grade I Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 9, where a date with Champion Older Female Zenyatta would be worth a $5 million purse.

Rachel Alexandra and Terry stepped onto the track from the half-mile gap at 6:15 a.m., accompanied by assistant trainer Scott Blasi aboard his pony. Unlike past works when Rachel Alexandra would walk or jog “the wrong way,” clockwise, before starting her serious exercise, she took a right-hand turn onto the track and jogged around the far turn toward the finish line. Asmussen said that minor change was because Rachel Alexandra was going further today.

“Got into it,” Asmussen said. “It’s time to do something.”

As with previous works, Blasi stayed with Rachel Alexandra aboard his pony through the stretch before sending the star filly and Terry off approaching the Clubhouse turn. Rachel Alexandra worked from the three-quarters pole to the finish line.

Asmussen complimented Terry’s execution of this morning’s plan, and the exercise rider could be seen smiling as Rachel Alexandra pulled up on the backstretch.

“Dom split off ‘the right way’ with her, galloped her around the pole and let her work,” Asmussen said. “Dom did it to a ‘T’ and if I wanted something different I should have asked him. “

Rachel Alexandra established herself as one of the all-time great fillies last year with historic wins in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks and Grade I Preakness, as well as six other stakes races, including the Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks. Her three Grade I victories against male horses—in the Preakness, the Haskell Invitational and the Woodward—helped to establish a new standard for excellence by a female racehorse in the modern era.